<title>Preparation of metal oxide thin films using coating photolysis process with ArF excimer laser</title>

Abstract

The preparation of metal oxide thin films have been developed using the metalorganic (MO) compounds coating photolysis process with ArF excimer laser irradiation at room temperature. The effect of the starting materials and irradiation method on the product films was investigated by FT-IR, UV, XRD and SEM. It was found that metal acetylacetonates or metal 2-ethylhexanoate was effective as the starting materials. When using metal acetylacetonates as the starting materials, crystallized TiO<SUB>2</SUB>, In<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> and ZrO<SUB>2</SUB> were obtained with ArF laser irradiation at 50 mJ/cm<SUP>2</SUP> at a repetition rate of 5 Hz for 5 min. When using An-acac, Fe, Sn, or In 2-ethylhexanoate as the starting material, a two-step process consisting of both preliminary weak (10mJ/cm<SUP>2</SUP>) and sufficiently strong irradiation (50mJ/cm<SUP>2</SUP>) was found to be effective for obtaining crystallized ZnO, Fe<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB>, SnO<SUB>2</SUB> and In<SUB>2</SUB>O<SUB>3</SUB> films. In addition, crystallized complex oxide thin films such as ITO, PbTo<SUB>3</SUB> and PbZrO<SUB>3</SUB> were successfully obtained from the metal acetylacetonates or metal 2-ethylhexanoate using MO coating photolysis process. Patterned metal oxide thin films were also obtained by the ArF laser irradiation through the photomask, followed by leaching with solvents. The crystallization mechanism was discussed from the point of view of the photochemical reaction and photothermal reaction.